Shanghai, 1931. Lady Sylvia Allington is the beautiful, young American born wife of an aged British diplomat. She and her husband travel to Shanghai to persuade a notorious Chinese warlord, General Gong Fei, to donate a priceless antique jade bust to the British Museum. Lady Sylvia, a former carnival cooch dancer from Chicago, falls headlong into a fatal love affair with the mysterious Gong Fei, getting hooked on opium and antagonizing the General’s chief adviser, the elderly Doctor Wu and his enigmatic mistress, Mah Li. A scandal involving a local bordello madame, Mrs.  Carroll and a cockney drug runner named Pug Talbot, leads to tragedy. Gong Fei blames Sylvia for his troubles and in a mad fit, brands her on the buttocks. She shoots him and finds herself on trial for his murder. She is acquitted but still imprisoned in her loveless marriage, knowingly sniffs a poisoned chrysanthemum and dies. “Shanghai Moon” is  an  homage to  movie and stage melodramas such as  “The Bitter Tea of General Yen”, “The Letter”, “The Green Hat”, “The Cheat” and “Shanghai Express.”

Stock and amateur rights available through Samuel  French, Inc.  45 West 25^th Street, NY, NY 10010. For all other inquiries, please contact Marc Glick, Glick and Weintraub, 1501 Broadway, suite 2401, NY, NY 10036

CREDITS

Charles Busch; directed by Carl Andress; sets by B. T. Whitehill; costumes by Michael Bottari and Ronald Case; lighting by Kirk Bookman; sound by Laura Grace Brown; wig design by E. Katherine Carr; Mr. Busch's wig and hair design, Paul Huntley; fight director, Rick Sordelet. Presented by the Drama Dept., in association with Sondra Lee.  At the Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street, Greenwich Village. 

CAST